And I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land: Here God repeats the promise he made in 11.17 to bring back his people from exile into their own land, that is, Israel. For I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, see 20.34. Peoples may be rendered “nations” (New International Version, New International Reader’s Version, New Century Version, Revised English Bible, Moffatt). A number of translations combine peoples and countries; for example, Good News Translation renders the first two clauses of this verse as “I will take them out of foreign countries, gather them together.” For will bring them into their own land, see 20.42.

And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the fountains, and in all the inhabited places of the country: I will feed them means God will be their shepherd and look after them. The mountains of Israel are the very place where the bad shepherds had not cared for them (see Ezek 34.6). The Hebrew word for fountains is better rendered “ravines” (New International Version, New Century Version, English Standard Version, Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible), which are deep valleys that rivers carve out in the hills (see the comments on 6.3, where it is translated “ravines”). Other possible renderings are “valleys” (Contemporary English Version, New International Reader’s Version, Christian Community Bible, Moffatt), “rivers” (New Living Translation, King James Version), “streams” (Good News Translation, New American Standard Bible, Revised English Bible), and “watercourses” (New Revised Standard Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). All the inhabited places of the country are “all of the places in the land where people live” (New International Reader’s Version). Good News Translation renders this phrase as “green pastures” (similarly Contemporary English Version with “fertile fields”), which interprets inhabited places as places where people can live because the land is good enough to produce food for them. A model for this whole sentence is “I will feed them on the mountains and by the rivers of Israel and in all the places where people live in the land.”

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .